LonelyRat's (not so lonely) Road to Riches

onedaysomeday · 23 April 2018 at 3:10PM

I know what you mean about the booze - I'll quite happily have a few drinks in the evening for no reason other than I'm bored (I suspect my weight gain may be related) :rotfl:

Caving a little isn't bad! It's the complete caving in that's the problem so well done on just little spends

I've never really looked into or understood pensions, perhaps I should!

Hope you have a nice evening to make up for a rubbish day

lonelyrat · 23 April 2018 at 8:00PM

Onedaysomeday it's so easy... I think forming habits like that are so easy to do but then when you try to break them it's so hard. My dad's quite health conscious and he was basically telling me that your liver is one of the most important organs in regulating your weight and after one alcoholic drink that's your liver out of action for like 2 weeks. Pretty scary stuff! I think my liver needs at least a few months of tlc to get back on track :rotfl:

Yeah I suppose... I did only have one and was very, very tempted to scoff the lot. Baby steps!

To be honest I'm a bit wooly with pensions as well. I know it's important but isn't something I had really considered before. I think I just felt guilty having opted out as I felt I was robbing my future OAP self due to my poor decisions now. Once I'm out of debt I'm going to start looking at making larger contributions. But at the same time want to save for a deposit.. Decisions, decisions!

I have a confession to make.... I had a nap

It just snuck up on me! I was all roasty after my shower and OH was napping and I just sort of sunk into it

Feeling v. rested right now... Which isn't ideal! Am hoping I can still nod off at a decent time.

lonelyrat · 24 April 2018 at 7:25AM

The nap didn’t affect me falling asleep thankfully! Was asleep before half 12 which is very much an improvement. Feeling full of beans today and determined for work to be better than yesterday.

All dds have come out now and still have £60 in my dd account so just paid £50 to the Santander card which brings that balance down to £900.

Got £100.56 left in my spending account which is ok. Going to be strong with OH and say if he needs any food it’s from Aldi rather than tesco and that he needs to meal plan before I buy him anything!

114 days

Silver_Queen · 24 April 2018 at 9:09AM

Hi Lonelyrat, it is definitely worth paying into an employer pension if they offer it. You pay a percentage of your income pre-tax into it and your employer pays a percentage in too. You've said yours is 5% and your employer matches 8.5% which is pretty good! You're getting 8.5% of your salary as free money for when you're older. Because it's taken out pre-tax as well, you don't pay tax on the amount that's paid into your pension and if you opt out you don't actually get as much money.

onedaysomeday · 24 April 2018 at 9:11AM

lonelyrat wrote: »

My dad's quite health conscious and he was basically telling me that your liver is one of the most important organs in regulating your weight and after one alcoholic drink that's your liver out of action for like 2 weeks. Pretty scary stuff!.

Well I did not know that :eek:

You inspired me to look at my pension and at least I know now what gets paid in every month!

Well done on £50 off of the CC

Silver_Queen · 24 April 2018 at 9:13AM

I'm terrible at maths so excuse my extreme oversimplification...

Say you earn £1000 per month. Your pension contribution is 5%. Your employer's is 8.5%. You contribute £50 per month pre tax. Your employer contributes £85. You get £135 paid into your pension every month!

If you opt out, you get the £50 but you have to pay tax. You're in the 20% tax band. You pay 20% tax on the £50. You get an extra £40 in your pay.

Obviously this doesn't take into account things like tax free allowance etc and is extremely oversimplified (what can I say, I really suck at maths). But you can see that it's worth paying into your pension.

onedaysomeday · 24 April 2018 at 9:18AM

That's the clearest way I've seen it written Silver Queen - thank you

Silver_Queen · 24 April 2018 at 9:37AM

onedaysomeday wrote: »

That's the clearest way I've seen it written Silver Queen - thank you

Glad to help

lonelyrat · 24 April 2018 at 4:31PM

Thank you for making it so clear Silverqueen! The aim will definitely be to increase it more once I'm debt free.

Work today was awful again.. Not sure what it is but I've been really struggling the last few days/week. Off tomorrow and Thursday though so hoping an early night and a solid, productive day tomorrow may make me feel better about going back.

Friend from work who's off on maternity came in with baby today... He is so cute it's actually ridiculous. Was lovely to see her (and baby) so will message her in a few days and see if she wants to meet up.
OH handed in his last assignment today.. So he's finished university :eek: Feel a bit funny as I feel like the last few years have just been on pause waiting for him to finish. Now he's finished I have no idea what we're going to do next. It feels good but at the same time a bit nervy.

Think I'm going to reshuffle our bedroom tomorrow. I feel like I want a change so might see if we can move some furniture around a bit. OH will likely not be happy with me as means heavy lifting for him

I want to thoroughly go through the wardrobe and chest of drawers as well.

Dinner tonight will be quorn chicken, rice and a coconut/lemongrass sauce. OH magicked £5 from somewhere (I think he must have a secret stash of money somewhere:rotfl:) so he has a roast chicken so he is doing something with that. He's playing computer games tonight with his friends to celebrate handing in his last assignment... Am thinking tonight will be a struggle not drinking as I'll be sitting bored on my todd. Must be strong

lonelyrat · 24 April 2018 at 9:56PM

OH has been asleep since I got home from work... No idea how he's managed it! I may or may not have been doing pottering around more noisily than necessary in the hope it would wake him up. Not sure if at this point I should just let him sleep on through as perhaps he needs it.

I have been strong and have bought / consumed no alcohol this evening

Feeling good as I'm off tomorrow and I can wake up at a decent time and with a clear head.

On that note, plans for tomorrow:

To do:
1. Sort out freezer - have just noticed it's leaking so think it's needing defrosting potentially? Will need to investigate and see what food can be salvaged.
2. Rejig bedroom furniture
3. Hoover
4. 10,000 steps
5. Laundry
6. Read 2 chapters of my book

:cool:

LonelyRat's (not so lonely) Road to Riches

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